Since Phil Ivey played his way to the top of the poker world, headlines concerning his legal battles have overtaken anything regarding his strategic prowess at the card table. Tell you what, though: You have to love the latest Ivey-centered story to hit the news cycle, as it combines the best of both worlds. 

Ivey filed a lawsuit in a UK court against Genting Group in order to finally receive some £7.8 million ($11.9 million) in winnings he’d accrued at Crockfords casino in London at the baccarat tables there in August 2012 – but representation for Genting claims Ivey cheated to win the money.

According to Yahoo news, Genting alleges that, together with an accomplice, Ivey first discovered that some of the cards used at the casino’s baccarat tables bore an asymmetrical design. Said accomplice than requested that dealer arrange the cards a certain way so as to reveal which cards in the deck were 7s, 8s and 9s – the key draws in a hand of baccarat.

“The staff was not suspicious,” notes Yahoo, “because the accomplice who spoke Cantonese with the dealers acted like she was superstitious and just changing the way the cards lay for good luck, court papers say.”

OK. But. LiveCasinoDirect must ask: Was this in fact cheating?

It seems to us that the provider of any service in gambling, entertainment or otherwise, is to be held responsible for the quality of resources/materials used in providing that service, are they not? Shouldn’t an enterprise which moves millions of pounds sterling at the flip of a card ensure that these cards are designed correctly? And if the so-called “scam” involved the dealer repeatedly fulfilling an odd request, shouldn’t he and/or the employee training practices at Crockfords be called into question? Perhaps the playing-card manufacturer or dealer should be sued by Genting…

Boy, the house sure gets angry when beaten, eh...?

Please allow LiveCasinoDirect to toot our own virtual horn for a moment, if you would, because we’re quite proud of our latest accomplishment.

Said accomplishment? Last week saw installation of the 2000^th free-play game on LiveCasinoDirect.com – Not only did this particular upload allow us to reach the big landmark, it also allows us to state that our free-play casino game catalogue now outnumbers in titles the biggest online outlets by a factor of four.

For the record – and with a fair bit of optimism that the winter of 2012-13 will soon be over – the 2000^th online casino game title made active on LiveCasinoDirect.com was Microgaming’s 9-payline slot Spring Break. As of this writing in mid-March, the four styles of online slots (video, classic, progressive jackpot and 3-D) combined account for over 1,700 titles – or about 85% – of the free-play games on LiveCasinoDirect. After slots, video poker, blackjack and scratch card games are the most populous on this website.

But just because we’ve hit the two-millennia mark, LiveCasinoDirect isn’t slowing down: Since the installation of our 2,000^th title, nearly 100 more games have been added. Most recently, a couple dozen games from small casino software manufacturer iSoftBet became part of our catalogue, and now LiveCasinoDirect.com includes every playable iSoftBet title.

Other games across the casino-game spectrum currently hosted at LiveCasinoDirect include those by Playtech, Net Entertainment, Cryptologic, Real Time Gaming, Rival Gaming, Amaya Gaming Group, Aristocrat, B3W, BetSoft, Gamesys, iSoftBet, Leander Games, OpenBet, Pariplay, PlayNGo, Top Game, Vegas Technology and Wagerworks – just to name a few.

Like we always say, please continue to bookmark and revisit LiveCasinoDirect; our gaming catalogue, already among the most extensive available online, is only expanding – and all games can be played for absolutely free!

From the It Could Happen To You Department comes news of a new record progressive slot jackpot payout – and this mark could stick around for sometime. Sunday, January 20, saw an as-yet unnamed Helsinki-based player hit the jackpot on the Net Entertainment slot game Mega Fortune while playing at the government-owned Paf casino website.

The winning amount was a whopping €17.8 million (approximately US $23.75 million) but if you think that number is impressive enough, consider further that this new record tops the previous highest-ever payout by over 34%! In September 2011, a Norwegian student got lucky playing the same game to the tune of €11.7 million (app. US $15.9 million) – itself an incredible 83%-plus increase over the former biggest winner.

The weekend jackpot hit would appear to indicate a takeover as the dominant progressive-jackpot supplier and the top progressive jackpot slot. Prior to the big 2011 win on Mega Fortune, the previous records had been owned by Microgaming Network and its Mega Moolah, said to be the most popular progressive slot out there.

In April 2008, Finnish player Klaus E. cleaned out Mega Moolah for a hit of over €5.55 million. This was in turned topped 13 months later by Georgios M. of Greece, who turned a 50 eurocent spin into €6.37 million and who held the record mark for an online slot jackpot win until 2011.

The record-breaking win can also be attributed in part to the general increase in the growth of progressive jackpot networks online. As progressive jackpot slots typically accumulate their big payouts based on the earnings of the game at several casinos, the larger the casino network gets and the more popular the slot game becomes, the bigger the progressive jackpot. Mega Moolah and the Microgaming Progressive Network paid out more payouts of over $2 million in 2012 than in the previous three years combined.

Thanks to several standing contracts in government-regulated markets in Europe, the Net Entertainment progressive jackpot network has increased in reach, and its slots’ jackpots will certainly increase in size in the medium-term – but we daresay it will be sometime before another €17.8 million payout is seen anywhere...